Bozada Wins Season’s First Tournament, St. Clair Fourth

It came down to the final hole for Maria Bozada to clinch the championship.

Bozada birdied the 18th hole at Quail Creek Golf Club Wednesday to finish with a score of 82, edging Westminster’s Ellie Johnson by one stroke to win the individual title at the Lutheran South Invitational.

Timberland’s first team was the team champion at the tournament with a combined score of 363. Westminster’s first team finished second at 394, Duchesne third with 428 strokes and St. Clair took fourth at 433. Timberland’s second team rounded out the top five with 441 strokes.

Lutheran South shot a 452, Union a 471, Ft. Zumwalt East a 493, Lutheran St. Charles’ first team a 497 and Timberland’s third team a 507, rounding out the top 10. Other team scores were Ste. Genevieve’s first team (524), Westminster’s second team (503), Ste. Genevieve’s third team (571), Ste. Genevieve’s second team (577) and Lutheran St. Charles’ second team (580).

Bozada’s round of 82 (10 over par) set a new 18-hole program record at St. Clair, besting her previous mark of 11 over par at Wolf Hollow Golf Club last fall.

“She just played a solid round,” St. Clair Head Coach Jeff Van Zee said. “She had two bogeys and one birdie.”

“Even our two girls who didn’t factor into the team score had some great holes, but had some blow-up holes,” Van Zee said. “It’s a little bit longer course than what we’re used to and for some of our girls, this was their first time playing on it. It’s a course that we’ll play on again at districts, so hopefully we can learn it pretty quickly.”

Emily Young led the Union scores with 104 strokes, followed by Sydney Hitson at 113, Skyler Traffas at 125 and Josie Lause at 126.

Natalie Miner shot a 127 for the Lady ’Cats and Alisha Skiles recorded a 150.

“As a whole team I think we struggled overall,” Union Head Coach Matt Goddard said. “We had a beautiful day of weather, but I think our nerves got the best of us.”

Being the first 18-hole tournament of the new season, the event served to show Goddard where his team stands.

“I know that we enjoyed being out and having the ability to piece together a full round of 18 holes,” he said. “I kept telling the girls to just have fun and see what we can learn from this tournament so we can build a practice improvement plan.”

St. Clair and Union will both compete at the fifth annual Washington Tournament Tuesday at Wolf Hollow Golf Club. The tournament is slated to begin at 8 a.m.